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using aria too much

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From: David Engebretson Jr.
Date: Apr 11, 2019 6:24PM

Have you all seen aria used too much?

I'd like to find a balance where aria is useful and where it is a hinderance
to usability.

Has anyone experienced too much aria while navigating a web page? I sure
have... I'd enjoy hearing your stories.

Aria-controls with JAWS has proven to be a booger as far as usability. Sure
the ability to jump to the control with JAWSKey+alt+'m' puts virtual cursor
focus on the element, but if the designer were to follow design patterns
they would expect the user focus is automagically brought to the element in
question. If focus is brought to the element already, why would we need
the automagic reminder, "press JAWSKey+alt+'m' to move to the item"
(paraphrasing)?

Why can't focus be brought to the aria-controls without any need for
reminder from the assistive technology we use? NVDA and Voiceover don't need
keyboard interaction like JAWSKey+alt+'m' to offer a superior user
experience...

I might be missing something basic. I've disabled auto forms mode in JAWS to
overcome most of the issues I find with aria-controls with JAWS. Have you
found a better way to overcome usability issues with aria-controls and JAWS?

Thanks for your thoughts,
David